American farmers move to Brazil.(Inside Track)

Though the United States has a rich agricultural and rural heritage, few people these days dream of becoming farmers. The cost of good farmland is prohibitively expensive and the return on the investment of labor and capital in farming enterprises is small, making farming possible for only large operations that can benefit from economies of scale. So, what is a burgeoning farmer to do? Why, buy land in Brazil, of course.

Brazil seems like farming nirvana. The country boasts of untold acres of undeveloped land south of the rain forest basking under a sunny climate that can allow the growing of two or three crops every year. Indeed, according to the Los Angeles Times, the cerrado scrubland of central Brazil is "the biggest addition of arable land on the planet since homesteaders plowed the American prairie. But unlike the U.S. Midwest, the cerrado isn't close to being settled."

American farmers have noticed. "Hundreds of farmers in the United States have pooled their money to buy Brazilian farmland," the LA Times reports, ...